This is something I’ve been wanting to write about for a looooong time. But I felt like I needed more knowledge and information upon the topic before I shared anything, or started throwing myself out into it. It’s about birth control pills (the contraception pill).

And this is a topic I’ve discussed with myself whether I would share in here or not, since I find it to be a very ‘crossing-the-boundaries’ topic. But on the other hand, I just find it so important, and I hope that this can get some thoughts started and make you consider some things.

Consequences of birth control pills There are many consequences when it comes to the contraception pill, and it’s quiet scary that we are not told about these when we first get access to the pill. I remember that the only thing my doctor mentioned about the pill was that some might get higher blood pressure and have a risk of getting blood clots (which is already pretty bad), and I just had to come down to the doctor once in a while to get my blood pressure checked, and that was all. But now that I’ve read about the birth control pill, I’ve found out that there are so many more consequences. You can get really bad headaches, you can gain weight, you get the risk of decreasing your libido and much more. Besides that you can get really bad skin and break out once you stop taking the pill, and there can go a long time before you get your menstruation back.

Alternative Methods It all started when I was watching some youtube videos about some girls that did no longer take the pill, but instead used a machine called ‘Lady Comp’. This machine you use to take your temperature every morning, and then it will either give you a red/yellow/green light about whether it’s safe or not to have sex. Because it turns out, you can actually only get pregnant within 5 days of your cycle! 5 days! And I who always thought that you could get pregnant the entire time – that says something about my sexual education in school.

Well, but these videos and the thought about not filling my body with hormonal pills every single day just seemed so right. Because I truly think it’s wrong to fill my body with hormones, and also just being able to control your menstruation and skip some with the birth control pill, it just seems so wrong. Especially when I’m trying to be as healthy as possible in so many areas of my life, then it just seems very contradictive to take a little pill each day which messes up your body and system.

But to be honest I have not had the courage to stop with the pills yet – because I certainly do not want to get pregnant right now. Therefore I wanted to be sure to learn a lot about these alternative methods of protection before I stopped. So I borrowed the book ‘Taking Charge of Your Fertility’ by a friend, and read all the important parts and took lots of notes. Besides that I’ve also been listening to lots of podcasts and watches youtube videos about the same topic (I’ll link them all below in this post). And I’m about to reach the point where I feel mentally prepared to stop. But I’m still a bit scared of the stories I’ve heard from people getting off their birth control (which once again shows how extreme these pills affects our body). Some experience that there can go several years before they get their menstruation back again, other experience that their skin break out. And the problem is also that you cannot rely on these alternative methods (FAM – Fertility Awareness Method) before you get your menstruation back regularly. Therefore you need to use a condom or some other protection in the meanwhile.

I just want to mention that this natural method that I talk about, is of course only useful if you are in a committed monogamous relationship. Because since you do not use a condom or anything else to protect yourself with, you can therefore still get sexually transmitted diseases.

My Plan I’ve made myself a plan for this process of quitting with my birth control pill. First I want to save up and buy the ‘lady comp’ computer to track my cycles with, and also use this device for knowing when it’s safe to have sex without having the risk of getting pregnant. This is step 1. Besides that I want to read more about the different supplements that you can take before stopping with the pill, in the hope of balancing out your hormones, and hopefully not get as many side effects (skin breaking out and loss of menstruation). So when I got these things in place and when I’m at a place in my life where I feel ready for it, the plan is to stop.

My Advice I of course do not recommend that you just all of sudden stop taking your birth control pill. You need to put yourself into this stuff and learn about the different methods and understand them. But I would advice younger girls not just to begin taking birth control pills just to fx being able to control their menstruation, or because it might help get clearer skin.

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